Stocks Jump in U.S., Europe

Stocks rallied nearly 3 percent on Tuesday, as investors bought up surging banks in the U.S. including J.P. Morgan & Chase, which was up 5 percent. The Dow closed up 2.9 percent, while Standard & Poor’s finished the day with a 3 percent increase—the seventh best gain this year—while the Nasdaq closed up 3.2 percent. Analysts attributed the market jump to good economic data on the U.S. housing sector and signs of improvement in the euro zone, particularly in Germany, Europe’s largest economy. Others speculated that it was just another volatile day on Wall Street, which is not unusual at the end of the year.